Our UK Education Collective Portfolio
The UBS Optimus Foundation’s UK Education Collective Portfolio supports organizations that are working to transform educational outcomes in the UK to help ensure that all children, regardless of their background, can thrive in education and beyond.
The early years of a child’s life are fundamental in shaping their educational and life outcomes.
Helping parents to provide materially and emotionally for their children in their first years of life, providing high quality early years education and breaking cycles of abuse for the most vulnerable can all play a key role in providing young children from more disadvantaged backgrounds with the best start in life.
Literacy and numeracy are the foundation of every child’s education.
Developing strong foundational skills in literacy and numeracy helps to provide children with the gateway to learning and accessing the wider curriculum. Pupils who fall behind struggle in comparison to their peers, not just in education, but also in later life. By focusing resource to accelerate learning for those that perform below average can help to address educational inequalities.
Many young people in the UK do not have the opportunity to access the range of benefits that higher education can bring.
Tailored interventions that identify, empower and enable young people from disadvantaged background to raise their aspirations and successfully transition to the next stage of their education or employment journey can break down barriers to social mobility.
Dismantling barriers to education
Supporting mental health and well-being, developing essential skills, and building a fairer and more inclusive education system in the UK.
Place-based change
Working collectively in partnership with local communities on a long term basis, to unlock solutions to the particular issues they’re facing.
Capacity Building
Working with partners to build and strengthen organisations that help young people thrive, in education and beyond.
UK Giving Circle
Education can transforms lives. Helping every child reach their full educational potential can drive economic growth, support better health outcomes and foster social cohesion. In the UK, however, the gap in achievement and opportunity between disadvantaged children and their peers is growing. There are also stark regional disparities, differences by ethnicity and ongoing inequalities from the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Philanthropy can help change this situation. Launched in 2024, our UK Education Giving Circle brings together philanthropists who want to work collaboratively to tackle UK educational inequality. Leveraging the UBS Optimus Foundation’s expertise, the Giving Circle co-funds programs and initiatives within the UBS Optimus Foundation’s UK Education Collective Portfolio of 20 partner organizations. Specific areas of focus include early childhood education and care, foundational skills, and transitions across the education lifecycle. The funding supports activities in specific regions, helps organizations to scale their work and supports research and evaluation. Over two years, the members participate in a learning and insights program including a series of modules focusing on key concepts in effective philanthropy, combined with practical examples, expert talks and immersive site visits within the UK’s education system.